Democratic Party of California Increases the Use of Technology For 2020

During the Voter Service Committee at the California Democrats 2019 Fall Endorsing Convention, Democrats discussed their plans to reach voters for the 2020 primary and general elections.

One of the big problems for Democrats in 2016 and 2018 was not having enough knowledge of people voting Democrat outside of registered Democrats.

“We were knocking on the same doors last time,” said Traci Hedem, one of the committee members. “We need to target Democrats, but we’re also going after minor party liberals who should be voting Democrat, and Independents for the primary.”

The solution was to create apps that not only tells voters when events and election days are, but also let volunteers know where potential voters are located and see who they need to vote for.

“Training regional local volunteers is important, especially in social media and fundraising. We need a lot more people on the ground,” continued Hedem. “We’re in conversation with a large calendar App developer to make an app for Democratic events. This way we can let everyone know when the next event is happening and get volunteers together.”

“We need to make everything more digital. With what we’re developing, we’ll have a list of Democratic voters, and by going around we can see who the Democracts are for the area, everything from president short of dogcatcher, and let them know who will be on the ballot. We’ll get flags for every Democratic voter on the App and see who they need to vote for.”

The committee also made it clear what their goal was in 2020.

“Job #1 is to get rid of you know who,” stated Hedem, referring to President Trump. “But the goal is to hold onto the gains from 2018, focus more on Congressional races, and flip Assembly and Senate races in battleground districts. There are 12 of them in California.”

“We’re working against the clock of the [Democratic National] Convention back east in July.”

A delegate in the audience also suggested a small focus on city level races, specifically mentioning the race in the LA City Council for a Democrat to defeat the only remaining Republican.

Another delegate from Chatsworth said “We were ignored in 2016 and 2018 since we’re mostly Republican. We lost a lot of votes to the ‘other guy’ in 2016. We need to have focus too.”

Committee members also noted that a statewide Democratic campaign had not been instituted since the 2010 mid-term election.

The Globe talked with Los Angeles Delegate and volunteer Madeline Cartwright shortly after the meeting on what this means for Democrats next year.

“California is going to the Democratic presidential candidate no matter who it is. This push is for congressional seats, Senate seats, and everything in the state. And we want to keep our youth vote.”

Other committees reviewing similar Democratic issues as well as a Democratic candidate forum will be held at the Convention in Long Beach through Sunday.